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Curatorial Statement
Pride Toronto has reimagined Pride Month for 2021, with a new Phygital festival model that showcases Toronto’s 2SLGBTQ+ communities and prioritizes hyper-localized community-driven events.
Pride Toronto is celebrating its 40th Anniversary and as we look back at the key moments in our 40 year history, we also look at the future and the present. 2SLGBTQ+ communities continue to be among the most vulnerable in Canada and hardest hit during the pandemic, especially Indigenous and racialized people. We seek to support as many artists in our community as possible, which is why we have been expanding to support not just performing artists, but visual artists too.
This project includes 8 visual art installations by 13 artists in 5 different locations around Toronto. The works selected all look at our 2SLGBTQ+ histories with a critical lens. They seek to educate, enlighten and provoke thought about our queer history, and present radical futures. These placemaking installations focus on queer elders, youth and marginalized communities. They act as a mode of reflection and celebration!
Art Installation Addresses
Hosted at stackt market – 28 Bathurst St
Hosted at stackt market – 28 Bathurst St
Hosted at The Donald D. Summerville Pool in Woodbine Beach Park
Hosted at Buddies in Bad Times – 12 Alexander St
Hosted at Underscore Projects – 1468 Dundas St W, 2nd Floor June 3 – June 30
*This location is not an accessible location due to two narrow staircases.
Hosted at Underscore Projects – 1468 Dundas St W, 2nd Floor
*This location is not an accessible location due to two narrow staircases.
Hosted at Underscore Projects – 1468 Dundas St W, 2nd Floor
*This location is not an accessible location due to two narrow staircases.
Hosted At Grange Park
Beverley St & McCaul Street, Toronto
Hosted at Underscore Projects – 1468 Dundas St W, 2nd Floor
*This location is not an accessible location due to two narrow staircases.
Artist Statements and Bio
Letters to a Future Queer
Lovers Art Club June 25 – June 26Hosted in the Art Zone during the festival weekend – Carlton and Church St During Festival Weekend on Church Street from Carlton Street
Black Ark
Oluseye Ogunlesi (he/him) June 9 – June 30Hosted at Woodbine Beach, 10 Ashbridges Bay Park Rd, Toronto, ON M4L 3W6 Featured as part of Luminato A vessel. A threshold. A
Pyramids of Connection
Jay-Marie Phillips (she/her) & Rana Mehanny (they/them) June 1 – June 30Hosted at stackt market – 28 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5V 0C6 Pyramids for Connection is a sleek, mystifying installation that
The Cosmic Explorer
Moe Pramanick (she/her) June 1 – June 30Hosted at West Toronto Railpath – UP Express Bloor Station, 1456 Bloor St W This portrait series uses fashion as an avenue to
Murder Music: The Malice Afterthought
Adéx Lava (he/him) June 1 – June 30Hosted at stackt market – 28 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5V 0C6 In this installation and exhibition – ADÉX LAVA explores the intersections
This Tree is a Rabbit
Jim Nason (he/him) & David Rayfield (he/him) June 1 – June 30Hosted at The Tenor – 10 Dundas St E, Third Floor, Toronto, ON M5B 2G9 A setting of trees
Colour Field 3
Nicole Vella (she/her) June 1 – June 30Hosted at The Tenor – 10 Dundas St E, Toronto, ON M5B 2G9 Multicoloured vibrant shapes ebb and flow, working both as individuals
Duality Illuminated
Tyler Burey (he/him) June 1 – June 30Hosted at stackt market – 28 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5V 0C6 Duality lives in all things, opposites bound together in a single
Sustainable Love
Alex Flores (she/her) June 1 – June 30Hosted at College Park – 444 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M5B 2H4 This piece represents that love is for all and that we
A Place for Fire and the Matter of Deep Time
My work explores how the non-human and inanimate world shapes our social, political, cultural, and ecological landscape, in co-authorship with the human and animate world. The subject matter for my current body of work came to me while staying in a stone cabin. I started each morning by collecting kindling and lighting a fire in the wood stove, and soon came to see the pieces of wood, newspaper, burnable objects, and ash as triangular compositions suitable for painting. The fireplace became an allegory, a still life, for the assemblages of our geological landscape – where the narrative of danger and comfort is contingent on the materiality of the object, its relationship to space, and the process of fire it will eventually endure.
